U.S. moves to impose 20% tariff on Canadian lumber

Unable to make any progress on a decades-old dispute, the Trump administration has taken a first step toward imposing a 20% tariff on Canadian softwood timber - the type of wood used for residential home construction.

Source: Peter Nicholas and Paul Vieira in the WSJ

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says about $5B of Canadian exports to the U.S. will be subject to the tax. The decision is preliminary and still has to go through a couple of bureaucracies before any tariff is collected, but even at this stage it seems likely to discourage importers from buying lumber from Canada.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) gained 1.5% in after hours action; no trades in Rayonier (NYSE:RYN).